The First Day of School

We had a ball.

NJL has a cold, so that kind of wore on everyone , especially me... but since I know these days pass quickly, I am trying to enjoy the clingy baby. :)

The girls are getting over colds, but they were surprisingly happy to be "doing school" finally yesterday.

We all woke up later than we had planned, but still pretty early around here for a Monday. DH is a minister, but he doesn't believe in taking Mondays off per se... but regardless they do usually feel like our lazy day. Not yesterday, though. We were up and at 'em and going relatively early.

We started out singing hymns. After beginning the day this way I wish we started this years ago. There is something about lifting your voice in song that starts the day off on the right foot. I usually empty and re-load the dishwasher in the morning while *listening* to hymns, but honestly I rarely feel up to singing first thing in the morning. Singing with the family forced me to do so. Maybe as I age I won't lose my range after all if I keep up with it. I was just telling a friend the other day that I have not really used my voice since high school choir, and as a result I can tell when we sing at church that I am not maintaining my range. Since I never learned how to play any instruments, my voice is all I have. I'd hate to lose it!

After singing, DH led all of us in prayer and asked for guidance in educating our children. It was a great way to start our day.

MKL decided at that point that she wanted to go play, so I decided JRL and I would do her math. I figured math is one of those things you should probably do when your mind is sharpest, right? We started with Lesson 1 of the Saxon Math K curriculum. We worked on the calendar and pattern blocks. JRL seemed to enjoy it, so that's good. She liked making flowers out of the pattern blocks. :)

I worked with JRL on her phonics yesterday, and she's coming along nicely with that. I was expecting to be more nervous and uptight about everything, but in the end the absolutely only thing she didn't do was handwriting yesterday, and we'll work on that more other days. No biggie.

DH sat down and did some work on science and social studies with her yesterday, but it was all very laidback.

A very good day overall!

Tomorrow...

We begin.

I CAN'T WAIT. :)

Monday

No case of the Mondays here today... instead, I feel rather rebellious. Today is the first day of school for many of the area schools, yet my kindergarten-age daughter is home. This is all surreal, sure to be even more so in two weeks when we officially start school at home.

Tonight and tomorrow night I have meetings with the two homeschool co-ops we're looking to meet with this year. The one tonight is for a new group, and the one tomorrow night is with the group we have worked with for two years. That should be fun.

Where are you in your homeschooling adventure right now? Starting a new school year? In the middle of a year-round schedule? ???

YESSSSSS

We ordered our Saxon Math K materials as well as this home Bible curriculum. Looking forward to diving into both.

Three weeks from Monday we start school. EEK!

Reading!

JRL started reading this week. She read the first two BOB Books on Wednesday. Needless to say, we are thrilled.

Basically, when she had trouble with blending sounds (we were using Phonics Pathways), I did not really know what to do. Then DH saw a copy of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons while we were on vacation, so we tried that. It works a lot more on blending, so for that portion of JRL's reading instruction anyway, it worked very well. We may go back to PP for further instruction, as the format of 100 Easy Lessons is a bit repetitive even for JRL.

Exciting times.... and only a little over a month until JRL starts kindergarten! :)

Kid-friendly "tea"

A friend had this "tea" at a birthday tea that some of us hosted for another friend in June. It is really tasty, and the kids are sure to love it! This will be fun for spring and summer teas when the kids don't want the usual sweet and iced variety (although I don't know why they wouldn't!).

An idea!

While trying to firm up plans for this fall, I remembered reading somewhere that another classical CM family had tea every afternoon. What a fun way to unwind with the kids! Since we won't have the traditional "come home from school and get cookies and milk with mom" time, a tea every afternoon would be fun. :)